©2004-2008 CyLog Software
CyLog Software has a long tradition in writing command-line tools. Everything started
ages ago on CP/M, then MS-DOS. Our most famous
command-line utility L.EXE was the subject of much attention in the era of BBSs and
FidoNet (early 90s).
Whist we are now mostly developing for Windows operating systems, some tools have survived the mouse-based
interfaces and are available to download for free on this page.
Nowadays our command-line utilities run on Windows command prompt
and they have a variety of uses:
©2008 CyLog Software
ASK asks for user input and can then write it to the stdout or
set the entered value to an environment variable and execute a command. ASK
is a hybrid utility that gives you both a command-line interface and a Win32 pop-up dialog box.
Usage:
ASK {mode of operation} {options}
mode of operation := [-o]|[-v:{variable_name} -e:{cmdline}]
options := [-c] [-h] [-p:{prompt}]
Modes:
-o print the user input to standard output
-v:... set the value of specified env var and execute the supplied cmdline
-e:... execute this cmdline after setting the environment variable
Options:
-c run in console mode, do not open a GUI dialog box
-h hide user input (i.e. "password" mode)
-p:... display the specified prompt
Examples:
1. Open a window, get user input and print it out on the console
ASK -o
2. Open a window, get user input and output it to file test.txt
ASK -o > test.txt
3. In console mode, get the value for the JAVA_HOME variable,
then execute the command line after replacing the string
${JAVA_HOME} with the actual user input
ASK -c -v:JAVA_HOME -e:"${JAVA_HOME}\bin\java -version"
The Win32 environment has a lot of restrictions in terms of altering the environment of a process.
As a rule of thumb a process has the ability to change its own environment, or execute a child process
with a specific environment. There is no way for a process to change its parent's environment and make
a subsequent program execution use it.
ASK uses the option of setting the value of an environment variable and then executing a child process
with an altered environment, i.e. ASK's own environment with the modified or added variable.
Please also note that this is the reason for using ${...} replacements on the command-line as any %...%
values will be replaced on the command line with existing environment settings before ASK is launched!
Example Run:
Note the value of the JAVA_HOME environment variable before and after the execution of ASK. During the
execution itself the value of JAVA_HOME equals "j:\jdk160_06"
j:\>set java_home
JAVA_HOME=J:\jdk150_11
j:\>ASK -c -v:JAVA_HOME -e:"${JAVA_HOME}\bin\java -version"
ASK v1.00 ©2008 CyLog Software
Enter value : j:\jdk160_06
+ Setting value for environment variable "JAVA_HOME"...
+ Creating child process "j:\jdk160_06\bin\java -version"
+ Waiting for child process to finish...
java version "1.6.0_06"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_06-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 10.0-b22, mixed mode, sharing)
+ Exit code of child process is 0. Closing handles...
j:\>set java_home
JAVA_HOME=J:\jdk150_11
©2006-2008 CyLog Software
clDisks is a very simple utility that displays the free and total size of your hard disks.
By default it will display the sizes of all your fixed disks and the full totals. You can specify a string of
drive letters on the command line to restrict the list of drives displayed.
Usage:
clDisks [<drive letters>]
e.g.: clDisks
clDisks cdef
Example Run:
C:\>clDisks cjm clDisks v1.02 ©2006-2008 CyLog Software ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Drive: Bytes Free Bytes Total MBytes Free MBytes Total Free(%) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ C: 14,813,052,928 62,915,133,440 14,127 60,001 23.54% J: 10,537,340,928 16,779,538,432 10,049 16,002 62.80% M: 13,594,578,944 67,110,023,168 12,965 64,001 20.26% ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Total: 38,944,972,800 146,804,695,040 37,141 140,004 26.53% ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©2006,2008 CyLog Software
clTimer is a utility that measures the execution time of a batch job or command.
You can use it in a batch file to start and stop a timer, before and after a set of
commands. For more "immediate" measurements you can just supply a command line
which will be executed as a child process.
Usage:
clTimer [-start|-stop|-clear|-C"command line"]
-start starts the timer (writes the current Windows Tick count to the registry)
-stop stops the timer (displays the time passed since "-start" was executed.
You can run -stop multiple times, to display lap times.
-clear removes the timer entries from the registry
-C"..." execute the command-line and display the execution time
©2003-2007 CyLog Software
CountLn is a Win32 utility that counts lines in text files. It supports all types of text files (DOS/Windows, Unix, Mac) by detecting all types of End-Of-Line delimiters (CR-LF for DOS/Windows, LF for Unix and CR for Mac). Usage:
countln <wildcard> [/s] /s recurses into subdirectories
Example run:
M:\example>countln *.pas CountLn v1.03 ©2003-2007 CyLog Software Changing dir to : UBitmapFilters.pas 11148 bytes, [ 289 289 289] : 289 lines UCopyFiles.pas 1289 bytes, [ 54 54 54] : 54 lines ... UTIconShortcut.pas 22747 bytes, [ 600 600 600] : 600 lines UToolboxFactory.pas 7907 bytes, [ 158 158 158] : 158 lines Found 8,915 lines in 21 files (1 folders). Total size 322,249 bytes
©2007-2008 CyLog Software
ExitCode is a utility that can be used for programming and debugging batch files.
It simply executes and returns immediatelly with the exit code that you specify in the command-line.
Use ExitCode for conveniently returning codes that help you handle special
cases in your batch files.
ExitCode displays a few diagnostic elements of the command's execution as shown
in the examples below:
C:\>exitcode ExitCode v1.01 ©2007-2008 by CyLog Software Current Directory : C:\ Command line : exitcode Cmd Line Param 0 : c:\winutil\exitcode.exe Exiting with code : 0 C:\>exitcode 123 ExitCode v1.01 ©2007-2008 by CyLog Software Current Directory : C:\ Command line : exitcode 123 Cmd Line Param 0 : c:\winutil\exitcode.exe Cmd Line Param 1 : 123 Exiting with code : 123
©2005-2007 CyLog Software
P4Rev displays RCS Revision Numbers of source code files as injected by Perforce, PVCS or other RCS compilant source control systems. Usage:
p4rev [-?] [-s] [-r] [-fp] [<wildcard>]
Examples:
p4rev -? // display this help
p4rev *.sql // display revision numbers of all *.sql files in current folder
p4rev -s // display revision numbers of all files under current folder
and child-folders
p4rev -r // display revision numbers only of all files in current folder
p4rev -fp // use full paths as headers of file lists
©2003-2008 CyLog Software
ReplaceStr is a console filter (Uses console standard Input and Output) that
replaces a string with another string. Very
useful when you want to parse a text file and replace strings in it.
The latest version supports
Usage:
ReplaceStr [-l|-u|-r] <string_to_find>
[<string_to_replace_with>|-t{<date format>}]
-l converts input to lower case
-u converts input to UPPER case
-r uses Regular Expressions
* Use "-t{date format}" as a replacement to paste current time and date info.
For date format use:
dd for day, mm for month, yyyy for year
hh for hour, nn for minute, ss for seconds, zz for milliseconds
* Enclose chars in single quotes to include them as they are
* Note that if string contains spaces they should be quoted with double quotes
Examples:
replacestr "this" "that"
replaces string "this" in the standard input with "that"
replacestr "$datetime$" "-t{yyyy-dd-mm hh:mm}"
replaces string "$datetime$" in the standard input with the current timestamp
using "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm" as a format string
©2006-2009 CyLog Software
ReplaceTxt is a powerful utility that can generate text file based on a variable replacement template engine. ReplaceTxt can load variable values from definition files (e.g. java-style ".properties" files) and environment variables and can be used to produce output files from a given template.
Usage (input and output text files):
ReplaceTxt <input_file> <output_file>
[-Ddefinition=<definition_file> [-D...]]
[-Eprefix]
[-nodate] [-debug] [-quiet] [-test]
...or... (immediate command-line execution)
ReplaceTxt -C"command line with arguments" [-nograve]
[-Ddefinition=<definition_file> [-D...]]
[-Eprefix]
[-nodate] [-debug] [-quiet] [-test]
The first command above will generate the <output_file> using the <input_file> as the source and will replace any string matching ${definition.key} to its value taken from <definition_file>. The second command will replace ${...} placeholders on the passed command line, then it will execute the parsed command as a child process it. The OS exitcode of the child process will be returned as the exit code of ReplaceTxt.
ReplaceTxt will also replace strings matching ${dt[+/-n]:<dateformat>} (e.g. ${dt:dd/mm/yyyy}) to the current date formatted as described in the <dateformat> string. Use +/-n to adjust current date in days (e.g. ${dt-7:dd/mm/yyyy} is a week before today). Accepted date formats are:
d, dd, ddd, dddd, ddddd, dddddd Different representations of Current Day m, mm, mmm, mmmm Current Month yy, yyyy Current Year h, hh, n, nn, s, ss, z, zzz Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Milliseconds t, tt Time in Short and Long format am/pm, a/p, ampm am or pm for 12-hour clock display e ISO day of week f, ff, fff ISO day of year w, ww ISO week of year (1=Monday, 7=Sunday) ii, iiii ISO year for ISO week 'xxxx' Text enclosed in quotes is displayed as is
Command-line options:
-D : Definition files should have "key=value" pairs in each line, similar to
Java-style .properties files
-E : Use -E to load environment variables using the prefix. Variables in templates
should be referred to as: "prefix.env_var_name", e.g. -Eenv will match
"env.username" to the logged on user.
NOTE!!! Environment variable names will be converted to lowercase when loaded!
-C : Use -C to parse and execute a command-line instead of using input and
output files. This is useful when you need to parameterize a cmd line in a
batch file and replace values on it with values found in definition files.
-nograve By default ReplaceTxt will replace the grave quote (`) character will a double quote (")
before executing the command line, thus giving you the option of passing quoted
parameters to the child process. If this behaviour is not desired use the "-nograve"
option to supress it.
-nodate Do not replace current date in place of ${dt:<dateformat>}
-debug Debug Mode On
-quiet Quiet Mode - No console output
-test Test Mode to check the definition configuration - no replacements are made
To shorten the length of the ReplaceTxt command line you may alternatively set the
environment variable REPLACETXT to a comma-separated list of definitions
using the following syntax:
SET REPLACETXT=-Eprefix;-Ddefinition=file;-Ddef2=file2.txt;...
Examples:
replacetxt input.txt output.txt -Ddef=file1.txt -Ddef2=file2.txt -Eenv
replacetxt -C"sqlplus scott/${password.scott}@ora001 @script.sql"
Another, more real-world example is to create a zip file that contains the
current date and time in its filename, e.g. myzip_20081104_1823.zip:
replacetxt -C"7z a myzip_${dt:yyyymmdd_hhnn}.zip ...files..."
©2005 CyLog Software
Sleep is a very simple command that will allow you to put a delay in your
batch files. Specify the amount of milliseconds as a parameter and Sleep
will wait for that period of time. Extremelly useful in batch file programming.
Usage:
Sleep <number of milliseconds>
Example Run:
C:\>sleep 1000 C:\>
©2004,2008 CyLog Software
Original DOS version written by K.Symeonidis ©1991-1992 MIDNIGHT Software
Wo is one of those utilities that was very popular under DOS. The Windows version contains a very
small part of the functionality the original wo.exe did, which was a fully capable file finder.
This version for Windows enables you to find files
in directories listed in your system's PATH environment variable, using the order they are specified.
This way you can identify which version of a file is executed or loaded when you type its name on the command-line.
Usage:
wo <wildcard> e.g.: wo win*.dll
Example Run:
C:\>wo java.exe Wo v3.01, written by Kostas Symeonidis ©2004,2008 CyLog Software Searching... J:\bea81\jdk142_05\bin\java.exe J:\jdk150_04\bin\java.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\java.exe 3 file(s) found C:\>